Surviving as Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms

The Governor of Yu Province, Liu Yan, welcomed us quite warmly.

“Thank you so much for coming to me with these elite soldiers! Thanks to you, I’ll be able to ease a great worry.”

The Governor of Yu Province, equivalent to a major general cum governor in Korea, is a position with enormous power.

For that reason, in the Three Kingdoms, it’s also a position given to major generals who are in charge of an entire front.

Such a person could raise an army of 100,000 if he wanted to, yet he’s welcoming Liu Bei, a volunteer army leader without any official position, so warmly.

Is the situation really so bad that it can’t be put into words?

Even in this situation, Zhang Fei is smiling with her chest puffed out, as if to show off how great our sister is.

If a man were doing that in this situation, it would be an eyesore, but because it’s the beautiful Zhang Fei doing it, she looks so cute that I want to pat her head.

Liu Bei also smiled at the unexpected warm welcome and replied.

“Thank you, Governor.”
“No, no. Other generals all want to go under famous people like General He Jin, General Huangfu Song, or General Lu Zhi… They don’t want to fight under an old and powerless guy like me. I know they’re doing it because they want to advance their careers, but isn’t it too much?”

To advance in this era, one must enter an official position.

To enter an official position, you need to be recommended by someone great, or achieve tremendous military merits to be recognized.

This is because without the ‘examination’ system, the path to obtaining official positions all revolves around connections.

How thick must this wall be for Zhang Jiao, who started the Yellow Turban Rebellion, to have gone mad hating this world where there’s no chance to prove one’s ability if one’s bloodline isn’t good?

“Because of that, there are no generals in our Yu Province who lead proper soldiers with purpose like you. They all bring ragtag groups calling themselves volunteer armies or whatever. They’re just a disorganized rabble who don’t even know how to hold a spear, so they die or run away as soon as they cross swords with the Yellow Turbans. Those fool xia ke who call themselves volunteer army leaders, already… Aiyaiyai. Back in my day…”

Originally in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in the Battle of Xiangyang Mountain where Liu Bei first showed his prowess, Zhu Jing, who was Liu Bei’s superior, sent Liu Bei’s army of only 500 men to the vanguard.

Although it’s said they won because Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were so strong that they instantly beheaded the Yellow Turban generals and crushed their morale, I couldn’t understand the exact details of why he did that.

But listening to Liu Yan’s story, I think I understand the circumstances of how they were sent out like that.

The volunteer armies that had come so far were no different from neighborhood gangster groups, so far from being helpful, they were only a hindrance…

So they must have sent them out to purge incompetent allies before the real battle began.

A general with a somewhat sly-looking face stepped forward in front of Liu Yan, who was about to continue his old-fashioned nagging.

“Governor, now is not the time for such talk. We urgently need to suppress the Yellow Turbans.”

At those words, Liu Yan cleared his throat and said with an embarrassed smile.

“Ahem, ahem. I’m sorry. It’s just that I haven’t had any soldiers to send out until now. The so-called volunteer armies only consumed the Yu Province office’s food and died like autumn leaves in battle. Thinking about those guys just made my blood boil.”

Even if they came with good intentions, if they only cause trouble, they’re no different from a tumor in the end.

So Liu Yan must have been under tremendous mental stress, I understand.

They eat up food supplies, and when they go out to fight, they fall like leaves in the autumn wind.

Moreover, when an army collapses, it tends to collapse all at once like dominoes, so when the volunteer armies started to collapse, the government troops would have died along with them.

‘Honestly, it’s stranger not to go mad after seeing that.’

But it’s hard to tolerate him rambling on unnecessarily like an old fogey.

“Who on earth are you? Although it’s only a thousand men, seeing you bring such disciplined elite troops. You seem to be a young lady from an excellent noble family.”

Liu Yan’s gaze, saying this, was directed at the soldiers I had trained over a month.

They were guys who couldn’t even stand properly holding spears until before the training, but after the hellish training, they looked like quite impressive elite troops.

Perfectly squared posture, shiny armor supported by Zhang Shiping’s money, intense gazes that looked like they would chew up the Yellow Turbans’ livers right away.

With all of this combined, it’s no wonder they look that way.

And what made this possible was that I used all the training techniques I gained from rolling around as an instructor at the Army Training Center to drill the soldiers.

My shoulders are rising on their own.

“Huh, looking again, they’re really excellent. It’s a slight flaw that there are few cavalry, but at that level, they should be worth a hundred men each. They’re on par with the elite troops of our Yu Province office. They’re like rain in a drought for Yu Province, which has been emptied out because we sent all our elite troops to suppress the rebellion that broke out in Qing Province.”

Although Liu Yan’s recognition is much lower than famous generals like Huangfu Song or He Jin who left their names in the early Three Kingdoms period…

As he’s the Governor of Yu Province, he can still be evaluated as quite a big shot, and since he’s given such high praise, we can’t help but feel proud.

“So, what’s your name?”
“I am Liu Bei, descendant of Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan. My style name is Xuande.”

Liu Yan showed disappointment that Liu Bei wasn’t a member of a famous family he knew.

However, thinking he couldn’t ignore Liu Bei who had brought elite troops, he smiled again and continued speaking.

“I see, Liu Bei Xuande…. I’ll remember your name. And Wei Zhu?”

At those words, a man who looked like an ordinary middle-aged man standing next to Liu Yan answered.

“Yes, Governor.”
“Among the rebellions that have broken out in our Yu Province now, isn’t the biggest one the rebellion raised by a fellow named Zhang Yan, who’s rampaging while leading a large band of bandits in Xu Commandery? How many troops can we mobilize now?”

Now, because my influence is small, things tend to flow as they did in history, so is it that Zhang Yan again this time?

The guy who appeared as a ridiculously dying extra in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and made Liu Bei stand out.

“About 5,000. If we include all the troops that General Liu brought, it’s about 6,000.”
“That’s a predicament. But if we don’t tie down that Zhang Yan fellow now, Xu Commandery will become a wasteland. For now, you should take those 5,000 troops along with Xuande there and his volunteer army to tie down Zhang Yan. Can you do it, Wei Zhu?”

Wei Zhu, or rather Zhu Jing as he’s considered in the historical context, sighed.

Although the official system of the Chinese Han Dynasty is different from modern times and the hierarchy is all mixed up, a Governor with the power of 3 stars and a Wei who is a field-grade officer.

This man Zhu Jing, with only the power of a field-grade officer, probably can’t refuse Liu Yan’s order.

“I will follow your order.”

Liu Yan gave the order but couldn’t help feeling guilty, so he patted Zhu Jing’s shoulder and said:

“You just need to tie him down. Don’t overdo it unnecessarily, and if you come back alive, I’ll ask the court to use you in a high position.”

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei also read this heavy atmosphere, and everyone’s expressions became serious.

Still, now that we’ve come this far, we can’t run away.

“Wei Zhu, and you Xuande, hurry and go to tie down Zhang Yan of Xu Commandery. I’ll send additional troops soon.”

**

Zhu Jing sighed as he looked at Zhang Yan’s camp from a high hill.

“This really seems hopeless, doesn’t it, General Liu?”
“No matter how much of a disorganized rabble these Yellow Turbans are, their numbers are too great.”

We had only about 6,000 men, but the enemy’s numbers easily exceeded 20,000.

Not only is there a threefold difference in numbers, but most Han government troops in this era are in very poor condition, so they’re even weaker than the high-spirited Yellow Turbans.

“It seems difficult to even tie them down here. Do you think so too, General Liu?”

Originally in the Three Kingdoms, Zhu Jing saw this mess and pushed Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei out, essentially telling them to go die.

However, now that he’s seen that the soldiers we brought are proper elites, he’s treating us differently from other volunteer armies, more like government troops.

Thanks to that, Liu Bei is being treated almost like an advisor.

“It would be difficult just looking at the numbers. Moreover, there are no city walls to rely on here, nor narrow paths to block.”
“The rugged mountain terrain is the only consolation.”

As I listened to those words, I recalled the original history.

Right now, these guys were so weak that they could have been easily crushed by Liu Bei’s army, which was leading only 500 disorganized troops…

Would it really be any different now?

Moreover, looking at how they’re making such a noisy fuss that can be heard even from here, quite far from their camp…

The discipline of the army must be terribly low and morale must be at rock bottom.

It means they’re no different from a mob.

So if we utilize these points well, we should be able to win easily this time too.

I was half-listening to Liu Bei and Zhu Jing’s conversation, and when my thoughts were all organized, I carefully stepped forward.

“I am Guan Yu, serving as a Dun Zhang under Lord Xuande. I’ve thought of a strategy to defeat the Yellow Turbans, may I speak?”